I think that one falls in the category of "it has more syllables, so it MUST be the better word!"

Same thing with "incident." The plural of it is apparently now "incidentses." I think people are confusing it with "incidence." I'm not sure how.

I think Gollum and the Orcses must have gotten to people. . . .

Simplistic instead of simple really makes my hackles stand up.

Some years ago, an educator from the museum compiled a list of good books on the ancient world for children. It was a nice piece of work except for one thing. When she meant to say that information was presented in a 'simple way' that young children could understand, she consistently used 'simplistic'.

She meant it as a positive statement but I have never heard 'simplistic' used in a positive way before or since.

There's also the problem of 'utilize'. 'Use' is a perfectly good word but the extra two syllables sound classier to certain writers.

People do think that an extra syllable or two makes writing sound more sophisticated. It just makes the writer look pretentious and silly.

I was looking through an artisan's online store and she kept describing her pieces as "simple but covetous" or "small but covetous". Either she means "coveted" or her pieces have amazing awareness of the world.

One that I see a lot here on Ehell that I have to stop myself from jumping in as the grammar police for every time:

"vowel renewal"

So, I just tell myself that marriage certificates are printed with indelible ink only on consonants (and sometimes 'y'), requiring you to go get the vowels re-inked every few years to keep the marriage strong.

One that I see a lot here on Ehell that I have to stop myself from jumping in as the grammar police for every time:

"vowel renewal"

So, I just tell myself that marriage certificates are printed with indelible ink only on consonants (and sometimes 'y'), requiring you to go get the vowels re-inked every few years to keep the marriage strong.

Or how about "walking down the isle"? I always have to stop myself from saying I hope it's not too big of an island!

Logged

"I don't mean to be rude", he began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable.

When people say “I could care less”. Most people do this, but if they would think about it for a second the correct expression is “I couldn’t care less”.

I might venture a little bit of defence of the “I could care less” version. I agree, “couldn’t care less” makes more obvious sense, and it’s the form which I use. However, the “could” usage is, I feel, not completely nonsensical.

“I couldn’t care less”: I have no interest or concern whatever about this matter – there is no way I could care any less about it, than I do.

“I could care less”: I have almost no interest or concern about this matter – perhaps I could indeed care even less about it, but I’d have to try hard, to perform that feat.

The discussion board Wordreference.com (English only), which focuses on points of English usage, once had a five-page thread about this issue. Consensus was, that the “could care less” version is the one which very many people use, rightly or wrongly; and that, as above, one can claim that it sort-of makes sense.

I answer 20-25 emails per hour, 8 hours a day, at my job. A lot of times I have to tell people their order has been canceled. About once a month I get a response back from someone that says, "I have been a teacher for 20, 30, etc years and it's CANCELLED!

I am not allowed to write back that both are acceptable.

English being weird? I personally use double-LL's, but I know both are okay. Cancelled, levelled, travelled, however, drives Opera's spellcheck nuts.

The double-L is standard UK English. I thought that US practice was to drop the second L, possibly as a result of Noah Webster's campaign to get a strong differentiation between UK and US English.